News and views about the Structural Eurocodes

28 May 2013

TC250 meeting in Copenhagen

I am writing this while attending the second day of the TC250 meeting in Copenhagen.

Yesterday, we agreed on the final submission to the European Commission in response to its Programming Mandate M515 concerning the Evolution of the Eurocodes. If accepted, this will lead to the second generation of all the Eurocodes ... hopefully greatly improved.

Also decided yesterday was the new Chairman of TC 250, since the current chairman, Jean-Armand Calgaro, is stepping down after 6 years at the helm. Steve Denton of the UK has been elected and - I am sure - will be a good leader during the forthcoming evolution period. Good luck, Steve in your new role!

At the same time, I was re-appointed to the role of Chairman of TC250/SC7, Geotechnical Design for the period 2013-16. My Vice Chairman going forward will be Adriaan van Seters from Fugro, in the Netherlands (a decision taken at the recent SC7 meeting in Madrid).

Today, we are listening to reports from the Chairmen and Chairwomen of the different Sub-Committees (one for each Eurocode). Lots of detailed information that I won't repeat here.

Now we are discussing the format of the future Eurocodes - should they follow the current CEN/CENELEC rules for all European Standards (in my opinion, yes) or continue to follow the old rules that were established over 20 years ago specifically for the Eurocodes (imho, no)? The problem with TC250 is that there are too many people looking backwards and too few looking forward.

Meeting almost over. Time, perhaps, for a casual look around the beautiful city of Copenhagen.